“Most vendors in India, including leading IT companies, have been focused on just providing IT services. Security products have largely been imported. The space offered a huge opportunity,“ says WigVinay Dwivedi | ET Bureau | February 15, 2016, 10:01 IST

Mushrooming of marketplaces and service aggregators almost makes it seem that these businesses are all that is to the Indian startup scene. Not true. There are enterprises, such as Innefu Labs, that buck the trend, add variety, and solve critical problems.

Founded in September 2012 by two IT engineers, Tarun Wig and Abhishek Sharma, Innefu Labs is an IT security solutions company. “Most vendors in India, including leading IT companies, have been focused on just providing IT services. Security products have largely been imported. The space offered a huge opportunity,“ says Wig, 32.

Increasing incidences of cyber-attacks also called for the adoption of more potent solutions. “In the security sphere, hacking has moved away from attacking an organisation to attacking key users in the organisation,“ says Sharma, 31.

To address the challenge, Innefu Labs built AuthShield, a patented security solution. It employs an image - and speech-based authentication system. To log into a system or an application, a user needs to click a selfie from his phone or say a few words. The selfie is then matched using a 3-D modelling pattern with the user's features (stored in the software), to allow him access to the device application. For voice recognition, the user's speech pat tern is matched.

“The biggest advantage of this technology is that it cannot be spoofed,“ claims Wig. “This is because the system employs a unique gesture recognition technology and text-independent speaker recognition,“ he explains. The product can also be used to secure email clients on smart phones as well as desktops, employees' SAP accounts, etc. “This feature is not available in any other authentication solution in the market,“ says Sharma.

The founders invested Rs 60 lakh - their savings and loans from friends and family - to start Innefu Labs. The entire sum went into paying the company's R&D team's salary. Wig's house became the company's office. “We had a running joke in the office that Dell started from a garage and reached such heights. Since we were starting from the second floor of a house, we could only do better,“ says Wig. This New Delhi-based startup, which has grown its staff strength from 10 to 48, reported a revenue of Rs 2.1 crore in 2014-15. It is about to close 2015-16 with a topline of Rs 2.6 crore.

The biggest challenge for Innefu Labs was gaining industry acceptability. “Despite being the first Indian company to get OATH (Initiative for Open Authentication) Certification, we had to put a lot of effort to be taken seriously,“ says Sharma.

The founders had to give umpteen number of product demonstrations to win clients. Focus on showcasing the product to the biggest names in the industry, even though it prolonged sales cycle, eventually helped AuthShield gain acceptance and, thus, build sales traction. Now, AuthShield is being used by 50 organisations, which includes information-sensitive institutions such as the Defense Research and Development Organization and National Housing Bank. The Reserve Bank of India has reviewed and approved the product, and could soon start using it.

Demand for credible cyber security products is only likely to rise, say the founders, given the spate of cyber attacks that are being witnessed world over.“Next generation wars will be fought in the virtual world. Countries with indigenous cyber security products will have an edge. And this is where we come in,“ says Sharma.

This bootstrapped startup is now in talks with VC firms for funding to boost its sales and marketing.“In 2016-17, we intend for a major sales push across the Indian market. Subsequently, we'll target Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,“ says Wig.